Citrus birthday

Well outside my comfort zone with lots of die cuts today. I also did a bit of fussy cutting as I don't have dies for the bottle stamps -- it's such an easy outline to cut out I didn't feel they were necessary for me as I'm quite happy with a pair of scissors.

I'm combining challenges again, this is my second card for the Retro Rubber Taste of Summer challenge (feature fruit) and Die Cut Divas has an "anything goes" challenge this month. I don't usually do AG challenges but as this is die cut heavy and that's not my natural habitat I'm making an exception! 

I just don’t have the “clustering” sensibility that a crafter like my online buddy Natty has so it takes forever when I attempt it.

The bottle is stamped with just two inks even though there are three layers — the detail layer I stamped with DOX Evergreen Bough and then the next layer is Mint Julep stamped three times for darker coverage and the final layer is the same ink stamped just once. The elements are raised to various levels with card scraps so that things tuck neatly behind each other and they’re all arranged on a background I smooshed and splattered with Tumbled Glass ink. A few clear and iridescent sequins give it some finishing sparkle. 

Stamps:
Lemon Blossom and Bottled Up (both 2019, The Greetery)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Evergreen Bough)
Hero Arts Shadow Ink mid tone (Mint Julep)
Jenni Bowlin ink by Ranger (Lemon Drops)
Adirondack by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow) 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Bahama Blue)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Lemon Blossom Dies (The Greetery)
Sequins

Thanks for stopping by, links to details of the challenges I played are here:

Scrappy snowflakes

The challenge on Sundays at Splitcoast Stampers is always a “featured stamper” one — the idea is to have a look at the chosen stamper’s gallery and pick a card for inspiration to make your own. I don’t often get to play along but things worked out this weekend and I decided to combine and make a second card for the “snow day” theme at Christmas Kickstart.

Maja was the chosen stamper this week. Her “scrappy” style couldn’t be much more different to my usual but I couldn’t resist having a go, perhaps because it was well outside my comfort zone and that’s what makes a challenge a challenge, right?

I made the background paper with ink and some faint snowflakes (stamped with acrylic paint). The edges are sponged with a darker grey with the hanging stars at the top stamped in the same ink. The ground is swiped direct to paper with a Distress pad. 

The embellishments are very much based on the inspiration card I chose from Maja’s gallery although mine are made from layers of kraft cardstock (hers are wooden shapes).The punched circle was covered with double sided tape and very fine glitter burnished on there. The wee bear is stamped, he had a touch of pencil colouring before being fussy cut and finally there’s a sprinkle of Enamel Accents dots.

Stamps:
Polar Bear Pals (MFT)
Magazine cover mount from Craft Stamper (Nov 2012!)

Paper:
Bristol board
Kraft

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Iced Spruce, Walnut Stain)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Hero Arts Shadow ink (Charcoal, Soft Granite)

Other:
Coloured pencils
White acrylic paint
Gauze
White crochet thread
Star punch (Fiskars)
Circle punch (Fiskars)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Glamour Dust by Deco Art (Crystal)
White Enamel Accents by Ranger

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still a week or more to play at Christmas Kickstart if you’re trying to build up a bit of a buffer ahead of time!

Cooling snow

It’s getting a bit warm again here in the UK so the current Christmas Kickstart challenge theme seems perfect if you need to visualise cooler things — Jo and this month’s elf, Caroline, are taking a snow day.

I’ve gone in for a close up with my card and featured three detailed individual flakes on an inky background. It proved extremely difficult to photograph this today so I've done a "flat lay" photo as well since the flakes show better that way (but look very dull). The flakes are a lovely silver but apparently too reflective for today's lighting conditions and my camera! If you combine the two images in your head you’ll probably arrive at something close to the reality of it.

The inks were just applied by smooshing them on there with a piece of acetate and the flakes are embossed with silver powder once the background was dry. 

A stamped sentiment to finish and you’re done — a nice quick card with a short supplies list! Ink smooshing means no two cards will ever be exactly the same so this would be quite a nice design to make multiples; you could leave the flakes stamps set up in your stamping platform but the background would mean each card was unique. Just don't try photographing them on a sunny day!

Stamps:

Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Noel (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper: cold press watercolour

Ink: 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean)
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Detail embossing powder (silver)
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Rustic Pear

I made a card this morning (well, I say this morning - it took so long I actually finished it after lunch) using lots of die cuts. I may share that soon if I can convince myself I like it! As an antidote, I felt the need to return to my "stampy stamper" roots so I combined a couple of challenges for a rustic "just because" card.

Lost Coast Designs is asking for Fruit, Flowers and Foliage this month and Retro Rubber's Taste of Summer challenge has a fruit theme so those two played nicely together. As my ripe pear still has leaves attached I guess I can count both fruit and foliage for LCD!

I stamped the pear (one of my very early stamp purchases, grey unmounted rubber from an unknown maker), masked it and then stamped the Perspective Floor as a sort of tablecloth grounding. Everything is coloured with pencils and it's finished with a simple sentiment and my usual rounded corner.

Stamps:
Pear (unknown maker, I've had it since 2007)
Perspective Floor (Lost Coast Designs, had mine since 2023)
Sentiment from Petite Posies (Technique Tuesday, no longer with us, 2011)

Paper: kraft

Ink: 
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper  

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain — May

It's reveal day again at Card Chain Challenge where this time 25 players signed up from around the world to send and receive happy mail. CCC is rapidly approaching a total of 5,000 cards made and sent — that’s a lot of creativity and card-making friendship over the years. Big thanks to Gail and Jo for keeping our lovely crafting community going.

My card has gone to Imke in Germany. I’ve gone very CAS although not quite one layer this time — the little post boy/cherub is fussy cut and raised just a tiny bit with some card scraps. 

I used low tack tape to mask off the edges of the card, stamped a fine script all over and blended a little of the same ink to define the panel a bit. Stamped the various post marks etc in grey and black, used the post cancellation lines as a little “whoosh” behind the delivery boy, added a greeting and called it done.

I only managed one of the options this time (postal) but as Gail always says, it only takes one to play!

Stamps: French Mail and Artsy Banners (both Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tuskineko (Graphite Black)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite and Charcoal)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antqiue Linen)

Other: Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by! There’s still time to sign up for the next chain if you’d like to join the fun.

No Peeking

The theme at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers this month is gnomes. As I got an idea in my head that I thought would work best with more than one gnome, I finally caved in and got some more gnome stamps. Pointy Hat Gnome has long been the sole representative of his clan and he's a bit too big for multiples to feature comfortably on a standard card! I picked up somebody’s crafty de-stash set on eBay featuring some of his smaller brethren.

They may not look threatening but gnomes can be a determined bunch — perfect for protecting the gift pile and making sure there’s no peeking before the big day! Gnomeland Security is a serious business and they’re not about to stand for any funny stuff. Head gnome Herbert is raised up a little (courtesy of some card scraps) just to reinforce his status, especially as he’s not the biggest gnome on the block.

 

I think this could work for Christmas or birthday as the gnomes are not in traditional festive colours. Funny how you see things on the photo that you’ve not noticed “in person” — I’m thinking I’ll go back in with a fineliner and make their little eye dots black since I stamped with a dark brown ink, I think it might bring a little more character to their faces.

 

Stamps: 

Christmas Gnomes (Paper Boutique) 

Funny Accessories (Katzelkraft, no longer with us) 

 

Paper: Bristol board

 

Ink: Adirondack by Ranger (Espresso)

 

Other:

Copic markers
White paint pen (Posca)

Computer generated sentiment 

Corner chomper

Here’s the link to the challenge with all the details, there are still a few days to play: 

Happy New Home!

The Die Cut Divas challenge this month is all about celebrations, so I decided to concentrate on die cutting and embossing for a card to celebrate a move to a new home when my hubby asked if I could make something for him to give to friends.

Last time I made a new home card, I observed I didn’t have anything like a pot plant which would have filled a space in the layout. I fixed that by picking up a couple of MFT die sets from someone having a crafty de-stash on eBay and I’ve used several of them here. I used Copics to colour the pots (I went with traditional terracotta) and the foliage and then added a little sparkle with a Spica glitter pen. I thought a white embossed brick wall might make it look like a whitewashed conservatory. The sentiment is computer generated and cut with a stitched rectangle die to make “shelves” for the pots.

Supplies:
Potted Plants and Plants & Pots die sets (MFT)
Brickwork 3D embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Copic markers
Spica glitter pen (green)
White paint pen (Posca)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
Bristol board

What are you celebrating? Whatever it is, if you use a die or an embossing folder, why not share with the Die Cut Divas here

Christmas Kickstart — mid month already!

My first card for this month’s Christmas Kickstart challenge featured a robin in snow. For my mid-month card I thought I’d keep the snow but switch to a rather different bird so may I present: penguins in snow! 

Cute as they may be, they presented a serious challenge when it came to photography — for some reason they absolutely did not want to be captured for posterity. I had four separate photoshoots with them and realised when I deleted all the photos off the camera having finally got a usable one that there were 84 pictures 😱 

The penguins were stamped on white, coloured with pencils and fussy cut. I stamped the image on the black panel as well and added heat embossing for the flakes above their heads and the snow around their feet. Some white pencil adds a bit extra snowiness and a die cut flake gives the sentiment a bit of a lift.

Stamps:
Bundled penguins (Stampendous)
Merriest Christmas Wishes (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board , smooth black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Detail white embossing powder (Wow)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Stitched rectangle die A6 size (Paper Rose, one die cut modified to fit a longer sentiment)

Thanks for stopping by! Jo and I would love for you to come and join us with your festive birds if you’re getting ahead with your Christmas cards:

 

 

Grasses at dawn

I'm combining a couple of challenges today — Lost Coast Designs want to see cards where there’s “nobody here”  (no people or humanoid figures) and Retro Rubber is giving us a colour palette of soft pinks and mauves.

I blended pink and mauve inks onto my panel then used a torn scrap of paper to add a couple of shades of pink chalk and Pan Pastel in soft rippled lines for my dawn sky (not sure how well the camera has picked that up).

The sentiment is stamped with the mauve ink and some tiny dotted highlights added with a white paint pen for that dewy morning effect.

Stamps:
Shrubbery medium (Lost Coast Designs - I've had mine at least five years)
Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper: Bristol board and black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Versacraft by Tsukineko (Wisteria)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spun Sugar) 

Other:
Chalks
Pan Pastel
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)
White paint pen (Posca) 

Thanks for stopping by! Both challenges are linked below if you fancy playing along.

 

Messy CAS

Friday’s Mixability challenge at Splitcoast Stampers must have just hit the right mood as I immediately sat down to make something. Host Janelle wanted to see “controlled chaos” — lots going on (maximalism) but keeping the overall design CAS (clean and simple).

There’s more area covered here than I would typically do for a CAS design but I think I just about got away with it!

For a Mixability many moons ago we made painty circles with the universal craft tool (index finger). Here’s the tutorial we originally used: painty circles. I immediately decided to revisit that technique, using several acrylic paints on a page of an old German book (I keep a few books that have broken binding etc just to use in the craft room). I then chose a couple of favourite areas and die cut into squares. Matted with black, embossed a small portion of the card base with a border embossing folder (actually used twice for a wider strip) and finally added some enamel dots and a simple sentiment.

Supplies:
Book paper
Acrylic paints
Metallic watercolour (Gansai Tambi Starry Colours)
Pop Culture embossing folders (Cuttlebug)
Enamel Accents by Ranger (black)
Sentiment from an old Technqiue Tuesday stanp set
White and black cardstock

The painty technique is fun to do and the results will never be the same twice.

Thanks for stopping by!